Priya Rajvansh, born Vera Sunder Singh, was an Indian film actress, who is known for her performance in films like, Heer Raanjha and Hanste Zakhm, amongst a handful of films she did during her career.
Background
Priya Rajvansh was born as Vera Sunder Singh in Shimla in a Sikh family. Her father Sunder Singh was a Conservator in the Forest Department. She grew up in Shimla along with her brothers, Kamaljit Singh (Gulu) and Padamjit Singh.
Her father was on a United Nations assignment, so after graduation she joined the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London, United Kingdom.
Education
She studied at Auckland House, where she was school captain, and Convent of Jesus and Mary, Shimla.
Career
She passed intermediate from Saint Bede"s College, Shimla in 1953, and joined Bhargava Municipal College ( Business Service Management), during this period, she acted in several English plays at Shimla"s noted Gaiety Theatre. While still in London and 22 years old, one of her photographs, clicked by a London photographer, somehow reached the Hindi film industry and Chetan Anand, (brother of Development Anand and Vijay Anand) in 1962, who cast her in his next film, Haqeeqat (1964), which remains one of the most noted war-films in India. Thereafter she starred only in Chetan Anand"s films, where she was involved in every aspect of film-making from story to scripting, lyrics, and post-production.
Chetan, too, never made a film without her as the central character.
Despite being a highly talented actress, her anglicised accent and western femininity did not click with the Indian audience. Her next film, Heer Raanjha came out only in 1970, where she acted opposite the rage of that time, actor Raaj Kumar, and the film was a hit.
Then came Hanste Zakhm, arguably the finest film of her career, in 1973. Her other noted films were Hindustan Ki Kasam (1973), and Kudrat (1981), where she had a parallel role with Hema Malini in the lead.
Her last film Haathon Ki Lakeeren came out in 1985.
After that her film career ended and she died in 2000.